Grange Park community farm to grow healthy food

A new community farm set to open in Grange Park will feature a children’s play area, an outdoor workshop, fruit trees, and polytunnels to help food grow.

Produce will be sold at a new community shop, set to go inside the refurbished and overhauled Blackpool City Learning Centre building, in Bathurst Avenue, where work started earlier this year.

The farm will not include animals but rather be a Community Garden Centre with outdoor activities, growing vegetables, cooking lessons, making things, woodwork, and activities going on all year round

The new community hub – which will also host a range of groups and promote mental and physical wellbeing – is expected to be ready by late December or early January next year, with an official opening held next Easter with a weekend-long celebration.

“The farm will not include animals but rather be a Community Garden Centre with outdoor activities, growing vegetables, cooking lessons, making things, woodwork, and activities going on all year round,” documents said recently.

The centre will also offer volunteering and apprenticeships, and be used around the clock, seven days of the week.

A ‘true community hub’, it will also be made available to families if they wish to hold birthday parties and other celebrations there, while a steering group and management board will be created.

The nearby One Stop Shop and Pharmacy are set to move into the building, with the council borrowing £860,000 to fund the extensive project.

The cash will be paid back over 25 years using income from rent.

The centre currently offers educational resources, houses Boundary Library, a cafe, and hires out meeting rooms.